"Enlarge the place of your tent, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes." Isaiah 54:2

What A Difference Six Months Can Make

Another anniversary slipped by a few days ago. The last Friday of August marked the first anniversary of “the call”.

See, there are a few things that adoptive parents-to-be dream about. We dream about meeting our children for the first time. We dream about the friends and family that will be waiting at the airport when we return home.

But the first dream is the dream about “the call”.

And while we wanted two children from Ethiopia, we found our son on a waiting children’s list, and prayerfully decided to pursue him, even though there was no girl available at the time.

And we prayed that God would bring our daughter in time to be able to adopt both of them at the same time.

Nearly two months later, we were about to walk out the door on a date when the phone rang at 5:30pm on a Friday night.

It was “the call”! The one we had dreamed about and prayed for! There was a girl, with a heartbreaking story of loss and relinquishment, who literally came out of nowhere.

Because God knew this broken girl needed a family. And He choose ours.

And while there were pictures of our daughter smiling at the transition home among her new friends, the first pictures of her with us showed a scared and uncertain little girl.

Gotcha Day, February 26, 2012

But today, just six months later, she is spending the day running and laughing and being loud with her cousins, wearing the biggest, brightest smile.

The Cousins, Labor Day 2012

Because though the road is hard and long, she is learning what love is. And that the greatest love is from God, the kind of love where you lay down your life for someone else. And she has seen that unconditional love from us (even through our mistakes). A love that isn’t based on her performance or attitude or actions. A love that just is, because Christ first loved us when we were yet sinners, and our performances, attitudes, and actions were ugly.